Mr. Wicked

Hooked, Book 2

By: Marni Mann

Narrated by: Andi Arndt, Ryan West

An alpha billionaire dedicated to no-strings pleasure. A woman committed to changing his wicked mind. Together they ignite a steaming-hot romance by the USA Today bestselling author of Mr. Hook-up.

Grayson Tanner has had better days. Coming off the successful international launch of Hooked, the hook-up app he cofounded with his two best friends, and a night with one of the sexiest women he’s ever met, he’s now in a PR nightmare. A video of him has gone viral—a toast to the indulgence of bachelorhood. It’s a bad look for the creator of the app’s marriage arm. As memberships plummet amid a media firestorm, his PR firm has a new narrative to quell the flames: Grayson has to get married. Fast.

Hello, Jovana Winters—social media influencer and Grayson’s former one-night stand. The one-night stand he has yet to move on from mentally. Their immediate connection is undeniable. In front of the camera, they’re charismatic and passionate, and social media is calling them the It couple. But off camera, Grayson doesn’t trust women or believe in commitment.

Jovana is the opposite, a believer in love who knows what she wants. Now she’s on a mission to turn this fake marriage into the real deal, even though she’s hiding the biggest secret of them all.

But with a man like Mr. Wicked, it won’t come easy.

©2024 Marni Mann (P)2024 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

🌶️🌶️🌶️

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5

Grayson, Grayson, Grayson.

Grayson and Jovana spend a 🔥 night together, but he makes it ABUNDANTLY clear afterward that whatever they shared was only for one night. Jovana blindsided by this leaves his condo waving 🖕🏼 at him.

Imagine her surprise when she finds out that Grayson, who by all accounts is basically deathly allergic to commitment, is responsible for the marriage arm of Hooked and is on a yacht with 6 women toasting “long live bachelorhood”. Not a good look for Hooked. And the only way to fix it and help the company…you guessed it, get married. To whom? I’ll give you one guess….

I’m not sure how @marnimann does it but every book she writes I absolutely love! This is the second book in the Hooked Series- a series of interconnected standalones. And let me tell you, Grayson is the biggest alphahole, but Jovana doesn’t back down to him and I love it!!

Billionaire Romance, Where the Good Girl Wants to be the One to Change the Bad Boy

4 ⭐️
2.5 🔥
Billionaire Romance
Bad Boy/Good Girl
He Doesn’t Do Commitment
She Is A Romantic
One Night Stand
Fake Dating/Marriage
Age Gap
Grumpy/Sunshine
Forced Proximity
Great on Audio! 🎧
This is book 2 in the Hooked Series, but my first from Marni! This is an interconnected standalone series, and can be read out of order. If you like The Miles High Club from T.L. Swan, I think you’ll like this series and many of Marni’s books. This book is about bad boy billionaire, Alphahole Grayson, who has a deep seated fear of all things commitment and marriage that stems from his past. He doesn’t even sleep with women more than once, in hopes to not complicate things. But he is immediately drawn to the waitress, Jovana, at his regular bar. They flirt, banter and end up going home together. But he fails to mention to the total romantic, good girl Jovana, that it would be a one time thing and nothing else, even though they both feel the passion and connection. Things end badly, and get even worse when two months later, news breaks that he is on a yacht with 6 women, living up his bachelorhood. Unfortunately, this doesn’t look good for Grayson who has become a billionaire from being a co-owner of a recent, nation sensation app dating app called Hooked. This news coverage has some detrimental consequences on their business, so they form a plan for the bachelor bad boy to settle down and get married, with thanks to the app. Of course Jovana is the woman they choose for this fake marriage, and even goes into it with hopes to change this bad boy and make him fall in love with her. But it won’t be without a fight, for Grayson is nicknamed “Mr. Wicked” for a reason.

Thank you Marni Mann & Valentine PR for the ARC!

So fun!

4.5/ 5 ⭐️ 3/5 🌶️

This is book 2 in the Hooked series. This follows Grayson a CEO of the Hooked App and Jovanna a server and social media influencer. This all starts with Grayson a playboy who doesn’t believe in love only doing one night stands. He meets Jovanna at the Club when he was with his coworkers. He instantly wanted her. He took her home and then sent her home. Jovanna was not happy because she thought this could have been start of something good. Grayson decided to go off the bender and go on the yacht with 6 other girls and made a whole disaster with his company. Hoover had to hire a PR agent (Laura) to rebuild the company. She told Grayson he needed to date and marry to fix everything.
Jovanna and Grayson started to go on dates and he was so grumpy and the banter between them was amazing, I loved it. I loved watching the character growth between the two, especially Grayson. He turned when he realized he didn’t want her to be involved with any other than man. It was like a switch, he became an amazing man and Jovanna feel for him. I truly enjoyed this book. I even cried a few times. (Happy and Sad).

I love this marriage of convenience

I loved Marni’s take on a marriage of convenience. When a video of Grayson goes viral and paints their hookup app in a bad light, his friends come up with a plan to restore their image. He will marry the beautiful bartender, Jovana, and make the couple the face of the app to prove that their marriage arm works. But faced with the reality of being constantly around Jovana, Grayson realizes that maybe he was against commitment simply because he hadn’t met his perfect match yet.

Grayson and Jovana

4/5 ⭐
3/5 🌶️
5/5 🎧

I was a little scared to start this one because Mr. Hook-up wasn't my favorite book, but I really loved the idea of this series and was hopeful. I'm really happy I continued because I really enjoyed this listen. I


I'm obsessed with fake dating and forced proximity so this story was right up my alley. While I don't loveeee the reformed playboy trope, I do like it when it's done right and I think Marni did a great job with Grayson. I thought Jovana was a really strong female lead and loved her sass and tenacity. She was the perfect match for Grayson.

This audio was sooo much better than the first book, I absolutely adore Andi Arndt and Ryan West and loved these two together as they brought these characters to life.

Automated Voices

Why doesn’t the female vs male voices continue throughout the entire story. The male voice or female voice over of the opposite gender is annoying as heck to me

So good!!

Great story with an appropriate amount of steamy bits. The writing and dialogue are wonderful and believable. The narrators are (of course with these two!!) fantastic!! I really connected with the characters and I felt like I was IN the story with them. Just an all around great book! HIGHLY recommend!

Loved Grayson and Jovana

Mr. Wicked is the 2nd book in the Hooked Series by Marni. It can be read as a standalone. All I will say is that Grayson and Jovana did not disappoint. This book had it all. It was spicy, sassy, wicked, and full of banter. From the prologue I was sucked in. Although Grayson tested me throughout the book (LOL). A true alpha who loved to push people away. Jovana was his perfect match. She challenged his to be different, to be better than his previous bad boy ways. And, boy was she patient. Grayson was full of baggage from his past. The tech savvy, eternal bachelor got himself in some hot water. Now he’s having to save face and trying to save Hooked, the online dating app that he created with his best friends. Throughout the book we see the roller coaster they go on and she was always able to see what they could be. I loved that. It wasn’t an easy road per say. Grayson gets an awakening though with the plot twist that was thrown in. Marni definitely kept me on my toes. Loved getting an update on Drake, Holden,and Easton Excellent read, I highly recommend.

great story line

love the happily ever after! I really enjoyed reading this author.  I look forward to reading more books by this author in the near future.

A fun, new addition to the series!

This is Book 2 in the Hooked series. The e-book and audio are available NOW with Kindle Unlimited!

Audios are my life right now, so I highly recommend that format. I think Andi Arndt and Ryan West did a wonderful job as Jovana and Grayson.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭:
Billionaire
Alpha hero
Age gap
Grumpy/sunshine
Fake relationship

When Grayson finds himself in hot water after a video of him praising bachelorhood is leaked, Hooked is forced to hire a PR firm to cleanup the mess. Enter Jovana - Grayson’s one night stand and social media influencer. The deal - Grayson and Jovana have to enter a fake relationship to clean up his image and resolve Hooked’s PR crisis.

Grayson is an alpha hole to the extreme. Definitely grumpy compared to Easton from book 1. He is NOT HAPPY in the slightest about this arrangement. Jovana has feelings for him since their one night stand and hopes that she can change his mind about love. I cracked up several times over Grayson and his grumpiness. I was also impressed with how Jovana put her foot down to get what she wanted. Of course, they have incredible chemistry and have no problem in the bedroom. A fun, new addition to the Hooked series!

Thank you to Marni Mann and Valentine PR for the ARC!